Spotify has introduced its first gaming-focused podcast playlists. Called Eat, Sleep, Game, the playlist has been developed in collaboration with the hosts of Vox Media’s Spotify-exclusive podcast, The Besties, and features a human-curated selection of episodes from a range of gaming podcasts such as Reply All, Spawn On Me, Triple Click, and more.
Eat, Sleep, Game joins a growing list of podcast playlists Spotify has launched over the past few months. In April, the audio-streaming service rolled out three weekly podcast playlists called Best Podcasts of the Week, Brain Snacks, and Crime Scene. You can find Eat, Sleep, Game at this link on Spotify.
“It’s sometimes easy to place everyone who plays video games in the same bucket, but video game podcasts really help to highlight the wide range of voices and opinions within the gaming world,” one of The Besties’ hosts, Russ Frushtick said in a statement. “These episodes serve to offer just a slice of this range, but there are countless other great podcasts covering every imaginable angle of video games.”
Video game soundtracks are one of the more popular playlist genres and the category has continued to grow as Spotify brings more in-house selections. Over the months of March and April, as coronavirus shelter-at-home orders came into effect, streaming figures for gaming playlists on Spotify went up by 41%. With this new gaming podcast playlist, Spotify says it wants to “continue the momentum”.
Spotify has been actively investing in podcasts in the past year securing exclusive deals with creators like Joe Rogan,Kim Kardashian, and announcing a series of dedicated features. Plus, the company has made three major acquisitions, Gimlet Media, Parcast, and Anchor to build its podcast network in 2019. Through curated podcast playlists, Spotify is hoping to make it easier for listeners to discover a new episode and help first-time podcast listeners dip their toes in the format.
In October, Spotify added the ability for users to add podcasts to their own playlists. Later in November, it also introduced Your Daily Podcasts, a personalized playlist that curates new podcasts based on your past listening activities.
